Tag Archives: unions

Come on in, the Anarchy’s lovely…The 8th Bristol Anarchist Bookfair is on Saturday 30th April 2016, 11am to 6pm.

The Bookfair and all Stalls will be at Trinity Centre, Trinity Rd, Bristol BS2 0NW, with the Radical History Zone just 5 minutes down the road at Hydra Bookshop (where you can also get books, coffee & cake).You are all invited! The Bookfair is Free to enter, but we welcome donations.

Trinity Centre is fully wheelchair accessible including a lift to 1st floor, accessible toilets on both floors, and designated parking in the car park. Hydra Bookshop is wheelchair accessible, but it’s toilet is not.

For full details of what’s on when and where – see Full Programme or FB eventFor just the Radical History Zone Programme – see BRHG website
For the Bookfair After-Party, presented by LaDIYfest Bristol – see here or FB event
For directions, public transport, parking and maps – read here.
We wish you all a day of total anarchy!

Protest – on the Saturday evening there is an angry march & protest: ‘Homes For All! Protest Against Bristol Council & Mayor George Ferguson‘. Starting from the Tobacco Factory in Bedminster at 5.30pm, and marching to City Hall (aka Council House) for an overnight stay/squat on College Green. Full info on FB event.

MAYDAYSunday 1st of May is May Day – International Workers Day – celebrating all those who have struggled before us, and expressing solidarity with all those fighting capitalism, the bosses and the political pawns today. Find out more.

Join us on the Radical Workers Bloc at Bristol’s May Day March & Rally! Calling all Anarchists, rebels, radicals, and workers who are sick of taking shit! Let’s give the politicians & bosses the Class War they’ve started!

The 1st of May is International Workers Day, it’s a time to come together to commemorate the struggles of the past and push forward the struggles of today.

Join us on Bristols May Day march organised by the Bristol Trades Union Council (BTUC), just look for the red & black flags on the day. We’re looking for as many people as possible to join us in a surprise action on the day as well. Solidarity!Radical Workers Bloc – FB eventBTUC march & rally – website and FB event

Also on May Day: On May 1st we are going into the city centre to make a lot of noise and celebrate our humanity in demand for Equal Rights and Justice. Meet 1pm by The Fountains!

All across Bristol and the world people are being forced from their homes. Some run from explosives, machetes and famines, whilst others are moved through rising rents and man made divides, but all the while destroying communities, families and the lives of young people. There is reason to be angry, but instead we invite Bristol to join us and express ourselves in whichever way you see fit. Make music, share food, dance and learn from other people. Info & FB event. Organised by Mayday Carnival & The Bristol Party.

30 April to 4 May: Reclaim The Power – End Coal Now Action CampJust an hour from Bristol in south Wales, this mass action could be one of the largest for years. Many people from Bristol will go on the Sunday/Monday in time for the largest action – so join them! Please read loads of important info first, on the Reclaim The Power website or FB event. Check also Frack Free Bristol (FB page) for any transport vacancies left on Sunday. Good luck to all!

We’ll see you at the Bookfair, and on the streets & in the fields! Solidarity to all! love, rage & struggle Bristol anarchist bookfair collective

Various Bristol anarchists & radicals, including the groups BristolAFed & SolFed, have issued a call to join a Radical Workers Bloc on this year’s Bristol May Day march & rally, on Sunday 1st of May – International Workers Day!

The Bristol May Day march/rally is organised by Bristol Trade Union Council (BTUC) this year, starts 11.30am at Castle Park – full details here.
(May Day follows the Bristol anarchist bookfair on Saturday 30th April at the Trinity Centre – but we are sure you’ll all be up in time!!!)

Callout: “Calling all Anarchists, rebels, radicals, and workers who are sick of taking shit! Let’s give the politicians & bosses the Class War they’ve started!

The 1st of May is International Workers Day (brief history + video), it’s a time to come together to commemorate the struggles of the past and push forward the struggles of today.

Join us on Bristol’s May Day march organised by BTUC, just look for the red & black flags on the day. We’re looking for as many people as possible to join us in a surprise action on the day as well.

The Bloc is backed by Bristol Anarchist Federation, and Bristol Solidarity Federation, get in touch if you’d like your group to get involved as well.” FB event.

Two discussion meetings of interest to anarchists take place over the next 10 days, both happen to be at Kebele social centre.

On 16th October ‘Another Workplace Is Possible’ takes in recent examples of workers resisting (and taking over), and discusses ways to fightback against current UK exploitative work practices.On 20th October ‘Private space, Public space, Communal space – anarchist participation in the struggles for Barcelona’, with activist-author Peter Gelderloos, hears about recent struggles there against gentrification, and how they may apply here.

But that’s not all! October into November sees a plethora of meetings, events, and we hope action, across Bristol. Organised by a variety of groups/campaigns, and aiming to provide ‘information for action’, as well as historical perspectives and deeper theoretical understanding. You can find many of these events on the new Events Diary initiative from Bristol AFed, whilst also well worth checking are events at or by Cube Cinema, Hydra Bookshop, Kebele social centre, and Bristol Radical History Group. Do get along!

A brilliant new documentary about the 1984/5 Miners Strike goes on general release at the start of October. ‘Still The Enemy Within’ is an independent, crowd-funded film lasting 112minutes, that has no experts nor film stars in it, and is sadly only likely to be seen at smaller independent cinemas. Pre-release screenings have been taking place at various festivals these last few months such as Sheffield DocFest & Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival (where we saw it), to rave reviews, while a formal cinema licence was being obtained. You can catch it locally on 21 October, 7.30pm at the Cube Cinema in Bristol (ticket info), as well as nearby in Cardiff, Bath & Clevedon – full list of screenings.Continue reading Still The Enemy Within→

It is now five months on from the 2014 Bristol Bookfair. Despite some crap weather in the late morning, the sun shone later and the turnout was pretty good as once again hundreds turned out to grab some political literature, attend the discussions, network & socialise. As usual the Bookfair was self-funding, with stall fees, donations, the cafe and after-party combining to more than cover costs. The 2014 Bookfair Collective has now dispersed, and an event in 2015 will only happen if enough people come together to make it happen? With the next UK General Election due around May 7th 2015, an Anarchist Bookfair around that time could be part of an intervention into the ongoing failure of UK party politics & parliamentary rule, and the dire need for some serious alternatives!

There’s a good chance you may be in need of some more anarchist literature & discussions to inspire you with ideas? Lets face it the world hasn’t exactly improved since April! Issues such as resource wars, climate change, wealth inequality, privatisation, political/financial corruption, corporate & state control, nationalism, racism, religion, sexual abuse, to name just a few, continue to impact negatively on all our lives, and we can be certain the political parties wont solve these problems for us.So here are a few upcoming events and resources offering you the anarchist alternative….Continue reading Books, more Bookfairs, and Ideas→

Update 11 April – well, well, well…hundreds of people in Bristol came together on Monday 8 April, in and around the Chelsea & Plough pubs on Chelsea rd, Easton BS5 for a street party to celebrate Thatcher’s departure from this world. See Bristol Indymedia report and Bristolian report, also local Tory press report. An offer of help to anyone facing legal problems/arrest has been made by Bristol Defendant Solidarity, call 07746741104 and leave a message.

The Bookfair Collective has co-ordinated this programme of meetings in the Bookfair Assembly Room. We believe that the topics under discussion encapsulate some (but obviously not all) of the key issues facing ordinary people today, be they political activists or not. It is intended that upto an hour of each meeting will be given over to questions and discussion. Download the programme for the Bookfair Assembly Room as a pdf Assembly room full programme or read on below.

The Assembly Room is on the 1st floor of the Trinity Centre, and will be accessed via the main Stalls room on that floor. It is a large room holding 80+ people, so your assistance is welcomed in starting & ending meetings promptly – please enter/leave quietly! Because of the size of the Room we will be using a small PA.

Our thanks go to all those who agreed to speak, and to the volunteer facilitators.

Ever since the labour movement of the 1970’s posed the question of ‘power’ to the political elite & boss class, successive Thatcherite governments have sort to crush union power, or at least tie the unions up in legal knots and with financial threats. They have largely succeeded, and must be emboldened by the relatively weak response to the Coalition government’s politically motivated austerity measures resulting in job threats & losses, and pay freezes.

However whilst the potential power of organised labour has lain fairly dormant and unused, opposition to austerity and corporate domination has tended to come from community and activist campaigns, with some success. Whilst numerous laws, and the reality of arrest & prison, have been used to intimidate campaigns, they remain an ongoing thorn in the side of power of capital and the state, with the potential to go further. So no doubt with one eye on potential struggles ahead, we can expect new or not often used measures to be tried on by corporations and the state.

The Government has sent a clear message to anti-workfare campaigners. Workfare cannot be beaten in the courts.

The recent court case, Reilly and Wilson V the Secretary of State, initially sounded like a huge victory for those opposed to the workfare programme. Yet when the dust settled it soon became clear that it was a hollow victory. Although the judge had ruled the Government had breached their own rules, nothing had really changed. The DWP has moved quickly to change the regulations to comply with the judgement.

It may be possible that some claimants, unjustly sanctioned, will be able to claim a repayment of any lost benefits. Yet, the Government are refusing to pay out until they have exhausted all legal avenues. Even then claimants are again going to face being forced onto schemes that the Government have had to acknowledge don’t actually work. All evidence shows that you are more likely to find work if you don’t waste your time on the work programme.

So what next? If legal methods don’t bring results, then a return to the methods that get results must the order of the day. Direct action, organising and publically shaming those that profit at the expense of the unemployed.

So join the Boycott Workfare for a week of action on 18-24 March against workfare exploiters everywhere. Bristol Solidarity Federation, as part of an on-going and sustained campaign, actively organised with others against Holland and Barrett’s involvement in Workfare. Resulting in the company, who were planning to take on thousands of unpaid workers, abandoning their exploitative plans. Now the Solidarity Federation has now turned its attention to Poundland. Continue reading The fight against workfare goes on→

…tax cuts and maximised profits for the corporate chains…and along the supply chain crap wages & working conditions for the workforce

You don’t have to be an anarchist to note that the ‘contaminated’ products are all based at the cheaper end of the market, mass produced products of dubious quality anyway, for the impoverished masses. Not much sign of products in posh shops and restaurantes requiring examination, wonder why?

Those supply chains, as exposed in the media, are long and complex – so many sub-contractors and middlemen, so much transportation, it’s amazing anyone makes any money at all. No doubt the workforce down that chain makes very little pay for very long hours. Supermarkets and the larger food producers use their economic power to force down supply prices, and therefore quality, as they attempt to dominate the markets and maximise their profits. Continue reading Horsemeat and bullshit for the masses→